19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

SUNSHINE (CONT.)
Sir:
Allow me to congratulate you on your latest swimsuit issue (Feb. 11). It was probably your finest ever. Your pictures captured not only the beauty and sensuality of your models, but also the wonderful variety of landscapes in Australia.
STUART FALBER
Medford, Mass.

Sir:
You people never cease to amaze me. Each winter the swimsuit issue for that year always surpasses the previous one.
PAUL MATTERN
Wheeling, Ill.

Sir:
I've seen every SI swimsuit issue, and this year's is undoubtedly the best. Keep Paulina Porizkova on the-cover. Only she can top Christie Brinkley.
BRAD TODD
Harriman, Tenn.

Sir:
I may live in Paradise, but I know Heaven when I see it.
DREW CONNELLY
Aiea, Hawaii

Sir:
Once again the swimsuit issue was marvelous. One question, though, concerning Kathy Ireland. Does she have brown eyes or blue eyes? I noticed in the centerfold picture that Kathy appears to have brown eyes, yet in all the other photos her eyes are blue.
DOMINIQUE BENZ
New Brunswick, N.J.

•Kathy's eyes are blue.—ED.

Sir:
I like looking at beautiful women in bathing suits as much as anybody, but what I fail to see is what these gorgeous babes have to do with sport—and please don't make any dumb jokes about girl-watching being a sport. I've been reading SI for years, and this feature still doesn't make sense to me.
MARTIN SMITH
Chula Vista, Calif.

Sir:
My 10-year-old son receives SI, and it is helping him with reading. But I strongly object to your swimsuits and suggestive poses.
JEAN GROFF
Lancaster, Pa.

Sir:
For the first time in my years as an administrator of public school systems, I have been forced to censor an item in the library. I removed your Feb. 11 issue from the shelves because the swimsuit feature is offensive, indecent and chauvinistic. Your usually fine magazine has stooped to the moral depths of Playboy and Penthouse, and I am disappointed in you! We want to teach our children respect for themselves and each other, and that article flies in the face of our efforts.
KENNETH L. ROETZEL
Superintendent
Danube Public Schools
Danube, Minn.

Sir:
Few, if any, of the suits were functional enough for any real swimming. I hope that in the future you will stick to sports and athletes and leave the half-naked models to Vogue.
ANDREA SCHWARTZ
Tulsa

Sir:
While I eagerly anticipated your 1985 swimsuit issue, I was shocked at the display of flesh it contained. What legs! What chests! Where did you find those sumo wrestlers (ON DECK)? They are disgusting!
TIM NOELKER
St. Louis

Sir:
The girls were great, but the highlight of the Feb. 11 edition for this ex-lifeguard was Gary Smith's article on our Australian counterparts ("I Want Guts, Meboys!").

However, I take exception to Smith's contention that "No, mate, we don't" row on the surf in America. I got to compete against the Australians during the '65 tour the article referred to, and I recall a day at the nationals, held at Montauk Point, Long Island, N.Y., when the waves were such that no boats made it out during the semifinal competition, including the Australians'. Later on in the day, two of our Atlantic City guards, Boomer Blair and Jim Burwell, not only made it out, but shot a sea to the beach from about a quarter of a mile offshore. Amid the cheering, one of the Aussies exclaimed, "You're not just rowers, you're boatmen!"

So don't put down American lifeguards for being paid. We can stay with the Aussies when it comes to lifeguarding, rowing, swimming and even beer drinking. Being paid just means we're smarter.
JIM WHELAN
Councilman-at-Large
Atlantic City

Sir:
Sarah Ballard captured the feelings of a nation in her article Their Cup Runneth Over. The stage has been set for Australia to show off her beauty and charm to the world, and for the U.S. to try to get the America's Cup back as a visitor.

I have been to Australia twice and to Newport half a dozen times, and I know what a grand time will be had by all in Fremantle. I already have my reservation.
TERRY TRUMBULL
Mountain View, Calif.

THE HOOSIERS' GAME
Sir:
Bruce Newman has pulled off the impossible with his story on Indiana high school basketball (Back Home In Indiana, Feb. 18). He has carried me back over 1,000 miles and seven years to a time when I was dribbling the ball off my foot along the baseline of Hoosier gyms. Since then, I have been to graduate school at Auburn and at Texas, where I have told my friends, "People in Indiana go nuts over high school basketball." Most have responded, "There ain't nothin' like football 'round here." Well, maybe that's true, but as astronaut Bob Crippen (a Texas alum) said of traveling in space, "I wish I could explain it to you.... Impossible.... You'll have to experience it for yourself." The same could have been said of Hoosier Hysteria until Newman took a shot at it and hit nothing but net.
CURT BILBY
Austin, Texas

Sir:
As a former Indiana high school basketball coach, I feel that Bruce Newman really got to the heart of Hoosier Hysteria.

Newman also brought out the fact that positions on local boards of education are sometimes sought only in order to fire the coach, and that petitions are often used to seal the fate of the coach.

While Newman did not elaborate on how often a high school basketball coaching change takes place in Indiana, the following data that I have compiled might make an interesting follow-up. Of 392 high schools that competed during the years 1974-75 through 1983-84, 50 had one coach in that period, 103 had two coaches, 116 had three coaches, 80 had four coaches, 32 had five coaches and 11 had six coaches. The 392 schools averaged 2.94 coaches, with the average length of time served by a coach at any one school being 3.4 years. Sixty-one percent of the schools changed their head basketball coach an average of every 2.8 years. The 1984-85 figures were down a bit: Just 75 schools hired new coaches, with one of those taking on its seventh head coach in 11 years.
BOB DENARI
Westfield, Ind.

ANOTHER OLYMPIC CHAMP
Sir:
As eagle-eyed readers may have noticed, Carl Lewis wasn't the only Olympic 100-meter champion in that U.S. Olympic Invitational Meet photo (Feb. 18, page 21) taken by George Tiedemann at Brendan Byrne Arena.

Peering over Carl's—and a CBS Sports photographer's—right shoulder is Lindy Remigino, the 100-meter king of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and an Olympic Invitational official.

Remigino has served his favorite sport faithfully as a high school coach in Connecticut and as a volunteer official. I only hope that when his competitive days are over, Lewis finds a way to put something back into his favorite sport, too.
ELLIOTT DENMAN
Member
1956 U.S. Olympic Team
(50-km race walk)
West Long Branch, N.J.

•Remigino (top left) won two golds in Helsinki—in the 100-meter dash and the 4 X 100-meter relay.—ED.

PHOTO

GEORGE TIEDEMANN

Letters should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.